91 firms bid for NNPC’s products transport contract

23 October 2015, Abuja – The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, has stated that 91 companies, consisting mainly of indigenous vessel owners, are vying to secure the contract for the provision of coastal and bunkering vessel services for the operations of Pipelines and Products Marketing Company, PPMC, a subsidiary of NNPC.

The NNPC, in a statement after the public harvesting of technical bids submitted by the companies, stated that the ongoing bid exercise seeks to engage the services of reputable organizations with essentially three ranges of Deadweight Tonnage, DWT, 5, 000-8, 000 DWT, 10, 000- 20, 000 DWT and 25, 000-50, 000 DWT.

Scope

Under the scope of work, according to NNPC, the coastal vessel is expected to provide the following services: evacuate petroleum products from NNPC coastal refineries to various discharge ports in Nigeria or outside Nigeria as may be designated by PPMC, delivery of petroleum products to water fed depots with restricted draft jetties of 6.0 to 11 metres as well as conduct ship-to-ship transfer of cargo from import tankers and discharge same at waters depots, among other functions.

The exercise, conducted at the corporate headquarters of NNPC in Abuja in the full glare of representatives of the bidding companies, also had officials of Bureau of Public Procurement, BPP, and Nigerian Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative, NEITI, as independent assessors.

Declaring the exercise open, Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Mr. Ibe Kachikwu, expressed delight in the massive turn out of indigenous Nigerian companies and vessel owners in the bid process.

He said: “I am happy that there is much show of interest in this process. The process is going to be transparent from the beginning to the end and we want the best yield in terms of value addition, best services and, obviously, we are going to grow the Nigerian content.

“I am hoping that you are going to be part of the journey that we are taking NNPC through.”

Kachikwu pledged to sustain the ongoing reform process in the corporation, which had witnessed the monthly publication of NNPC financial and operational transactions for public scrutiny and the recent public harvesting of bids tendered for the new offshore processing contracts, among other initiatives.